of modern family life…

Archive for December, 2007

All the youngest kids, waking Christmas morning, excited to see what the wrapping paper will yield. Six kids are there, three boys, three girls, eager for the moment when Mom and Dad will come to their rooms and line them up for their march out to the living room, lined up with the oldest in back. The presents are opened, one at a time, and the rest of the day is filled with cardboard boxes, good food, and rest and relaxation in our pajamas.

Today, it’s almost the same. The six youngest are again at Dad’s house, only this time, there are some spouses and grandkids thrown in the mix. The excitement is largely felt by the six grandkids, the oldest of which is merely six. The location of the house has moved from California to Utah, and there’s actually snow on the ground. With so many kids and grandkids around, there’s not enough beds to go around, but there are several air mattresses scattered throughout the house, enough to accommodate all that have made the trip.

JP, the second youngest, arrived around 10 a.m. or so Christmas Eve, along with Mom and Lisa. He’s got the mattress in the kitchen. Russ, the second oldest, just got in on his plane, around 8 p.m., and he’s a little thirsty. The mattress in the kitchen makes access to the cupboards difficult, if not impossible. And so he steps on it to get a glass.

JP:(to Russ, threatening) You know, in some ethnicities, a man would be killed for stepping on another man’s bed.

Just when you thought your life was insane, along comes Rik to point out that you probably haven’t ever tried on a Mountain Wingsuit.

Just a little caveat: the rest of the website may not be that great—the banner up at the top says “Fun Babes”—but the page that the video is on is clean, and the video is well worth the 2:26 investment in time.

You now have an outlet for altruistic word learning: Free Rice, where every word you learn equals a donation of rice to feed the world’s hungry.

I stopped after 2000 grains of rice and a vocabulary level that at one point reached 43 (though it didn’t stay there for long). After you give it a try, let me know how many grains you donated and how high your vocabulary level reached.

I can see this as the start of something huge: FreeRice.com – Improve your vocabulary to end world hunger!